Tomorrow is like Christmas for motorcycle lovers, as Tuesday is the first official day of the EICMA show in Milan, and it is also the first day of the post-season MotoGP testing at Valencia. With more than a few riders swapping seats for next year, one of the most anticipated transitions is Andrea Dovizioso to the Ducati Corse factory team.

The third wheel at the Repsol Honda team in 2011, Dovi made the jump to the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 garage for 2012, with the hopes of auditioning for a seat on the factory Yamaha YZR-M1 next season. A certainly Valentino Rossi ruined that plan, so Dovi did the next best thing…he took Rossi’s seat at Ducati.

With the Ducati Desmosedici labelled as a career-ending machine, the GP11/GP12 nearly did The Doctor in, making the move by Dovizioso a brave one. Apparently trusting the words of Ducati’s new owner Audi, we will get our first glimpse of Dovi on the Ducati tomorrow, but for now we get our first photos of the pair’s preliminary introduction.

As long as they quit trying to make the DESMO a Yamaha Ducati should start doing better right away.. Get rid of the sh*t exhaust, aluminum frame, and get with the program.. Ducati should get their $$ back from Rossi cause all he did was complain and in the end nothing else..

L2C

I hope Dovi, Spies and Rossi do well next season. Would be great for Ducati and Yamaha, and for the sport. Not looking or hoping that any of the riders will have a disastrous season, because the promotion flourishes will them all doing well.

Rossi took that seat from Dovi Yamaha made a big mistake by taking Rossi back we shall see what happens!!!

Jaybond

To be competitive again, Ducati should try convince Audi to try to use again the trellis style frame. That’s where the Ducati’s traditional strength lies. But the V4 engine could be narrower to assist mass centralization for better handling.

Minibull

I’m pretty certain the trellis does not hold strengths for Ducati in GP competition. Stoner pushed for the development of the carbon airbox frame. The steel trellis has a lot of welds, which Stoner himself said make each frame completly different. As in the setup with one bike would not work with the second bike.

Add to that with the current (and future) engine rules, using the engine as part of the frame is not a good idea. Look at the problems Rossi had, just trying to get more adjustment out of the bike. Whole new cases had to be made to accomodate the changes they wanted to test, which then used up another one of their engine allocations. And now, with the engine development freeze they are looking at, all 5 of the engines will be sealed and set ready to go by the start of the season. That means if it is being used as part of the frame, they are then stuck with what the have at the start of the year. Seems like a hell of a way to cripple your ability to test and if needed, make changes to that frame layout.

I love how people always label what the Burgess/Rossi team tried to do as “make a Yamaha out of the Ducati” Look at the whole of the MotoGP field. What frame “style” is most common? How can Bridgestone make a tyre suitable for 2 completly different styles of bike? What they were trying to acheive, in my mind, is to get something that is at least somewhat inline with the style of bike the rules (and tyres) dictate.

The fans would be pissed if Rossi just kept riding round with the same bike, with no hint of change. They would ask, why are there no new developments from the brilliant Burgess and Rossi, they must not be that great at figuring out solutions after all. Similarly, the fans are pissed because all the changes they made didn’t do much to improve results. The same sort of thing gets said. All these new parts and the Doctor still cant ride it, they must not be that great at figuring out solutions after all.

Make what you will of the following stuff. In my view, the spec tyre could be partly to “blame”.

2004: Using Michelins. Capirossi 9th, Bayliss 14th. 2005: Ducati, Suzuki and Kawasaki on Bridgestones. Ducati starting to get better results compared to the previous years 2006: As above. Capirossi finishes the championship 3rd, very close to Hayden and Rossi. 2007: As above again. Stoner wins the championship. 2008:Ducati, Kawasaki and Suzuki on Bridgestones, plus a switch by Rossi and Pedrosa to Bridgestone part way through. Stoner 2nd in the championship. 2009: Spec tyre comes in. Results starting to drop for Ducati. And on top of that, Stoner misses 3 races with his lactose intolerance. 2010: A lot more crashes throughout the season. Having to push too hard, who knows. 2011: Rossi and Hayden 7th and 8th in the standings

Heres to the rejigged Ducati Team, I hope they come up with the goods eventually with Hayden and Dovi leading the way.

jet057

This is like x-mas J.B. Finally Ducati has a real man at the helm who can and will tame the real beast.It won’t matter what frame is under him he has no fear,he ride’s on the edge somewhat like the man himself retired beast tamer Casey Stoner.We here kinda felt Rossi was all talk and no show,blaming the factory for his short comings.Audi has also started to flex their muscles,they want to win! Nikki and Dovi will be great teamate’s,no rossi pre-moddonna’s,the cat rode scared and at 3/4 throttle glad to see him go.Poor,poor yahmaha here you kicked Dovi out to bring in a washed out has been snifling cry baby,very sad.